Nvidia reports record earnings quarter as China’s H200 sales freeze persists

Nvidia has yet to generate any revenue from its H200 chips in China and does not know if any sales will be allowed in the country, the company said, as the US chip giant reported record quarterly revenue on surging demand for data centre processors.While the Santa Clara-based tech giant remains the primary beneficiary of the global generative artificial intelligence boom, its ability to navigate the US-China tech war has become a challenge, with the pipeline for the H200 – Nvidia’s second-most powerful graphics processing unit to date – still dry in China.No revenue had been booked from H200 chips and imports by China remained uncertain, despite small amounts being cleared by Washington for China-based customers, said Colette Kress, Nvidia’s executive vice-president and chief financial officer, during a post-earnings call on Thursday.The remarks echoed those of US Commerce Department official David Peters, who said on Tuesday that Nvidia had yet to sell any H200 units in China.The comments underscore regulatory uncertainty from Beijing regarding the imports of the GPU, which remains a key option for Chinese tech giants to train their AI models, after it was cleared by Washington in January on condition that the shipments do not exceed 50 per cent of the volume sold in the US.Kress also flagged rising competition in China, where domestic chipmakers have rushed to initial public offerings (IPOs) in recent months to meet soaring demand and position themselves as alternatives to Nvidia.Nvidia reported a revenue of US$68.1 billion for the quarter ended on January 25, up 73 per cent from a year earlier, beating the consensus estimate of US$65.8 billion Photo: EPA